


Blood Before Brothers and Gods

by Amanthya



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: (or Robert and probably Lyanna once too he's not too good at this is he?), Canon Error Apply Fanfic?, Family Feels, Fic of Fic, I haven't even seen every episode, Ned Stark loves both of his daughters, Not Beta Read, The Author Regrets Everything, and run-on sentences, excessive use of parenthesis, he just kinda sucks at showing it in canon, i should really be asleep right now, or read the books, or standing up to Catelyn, sometimes you just can't take the second-son out of a boy, sorry - Freeform, sorry about that too, wtf am I doing?, yes please don't mind if I do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26489452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amanthya/pseuds/Amanthya
Summary: "And Ned firmly put his foot down against the idea that Sansa should be rushed from her childhood -- from his arms, in truth -- into a Septa's care before she was even old enough to see well-easy over the top of the dining table."Ned dearly loves Robert and Catelyn both; one is near-enough a brother and the other, his wife in truth rather that merely in name as he'd once feared would be. But for neither can he give up his eldest daughter -- the first of his children he held on the very day of their birth -- so easily. Sansa is her mother's daughter in many ways, but she is Ned's just as much.
Relationships: Ned Stark & Sansa Stark
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	Blood Before Brothers and Gods

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [100 ASOIAF Fairy Tales](https://archiveofourown.org/works/466422) by [vixleonard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vixleonard/pseuds/vixleonard). 



> This fic is a glorified would-have-been review-response that got outta hand; a headcanon of another's headcanon (on ch11), because SOMEBODY, who shall not remain nameless I'm talking to you vixleonard, gave me Feels and I just could not even. My firstest-ever post of anything at all, so... please be merciful, I should be asleep and instead I'm... *points-at-fic* ...this.

\--and Ned firmly put his foot down against the idea that Sansa should be rushed from her childhood -- from his arms, in truth -- into a Septa's care before she was even old enough to see well-easy over the top of the dining table, no, he'd not agree to it, not even for his wife.

Catelyn didn't like it, and ultimately Ned did agree that they'd send for a Septa... eventually... but not yet. Not yet.

In the end, it hardly seemed to matter that Sansa and Arya spent most of their day in the Septa's care, for their behaviour rarely showed it. Oh, Sansa could be gracious as anything, certainly; she had loved learning to dance and sew and curtsy properly, and she liked to make the adults smile along with her by doing these things (especially when wheedling an extra lemon cake out of someone's hands).

But she also changed from her 'princess dress' after lessons and before their formal dinner to breeches (that to her credit she had altered herself to fit neatly and later also did so with Arya's and that was a lady-like accomplishment, wasn't it?) to run with her sister after the boys, even if they couldn't quite keep up.

Sansa had never liked being left behind, so she gritted her teeth and became passingly profficient at archery and slightly better with a delicate-looking sword, lagging behind her younger sister in natural skill but equal in stubborness and ahead of her in height and arm's reach.

(Ned tried to point out that he'd not given either girl permission for this. Catelyn was not appeased.)

But worst of all to his lady-wife's eyes was that Sansa, her poised and mannerly little mirror-image-in-miniature, liked her bastard half-brother as much as her true-born elder sibling.

(Actually, moreso.)

Sansa told him in confidence one eve, "It's 'cause he's mostest like *you*, papa; he reads with me and always remembers to rescue me when I'm a princess, not like Robb and Theon when they only care about the fighting-parts, and he doesn't smile-too-much just like you don't, and Jeyne said in sewing-circle that her cousin said you should never trust a man that smiles too much." Her voice dropped into a confessor's whisper. "Robb smiles much more-er and he forgets me in my pretend-tower a lot. So he can't be my favourite any more. But don't say, 'cause I don't want him to be sad!"

And Ned hadn't known how to respond to that, other than to give his word to stay silent on the matter of Sansa's "real-true favourite", hold her closer and finish the story-book they were reading while Catelyn and the Septa wrestled Arya into a full actual-bath and yes it took both of them. Oh, and vow silently to never let these words reach his wife's ears unfiltered.

("Because Jon plays princess-in-a-tower with her as much as wolf-and-sheep with Arya, and you know she hates to feel left out" and "he lets her tell him all about her favorite songs and stories time and again when Arya and the boys've run off" and "of course she's sweet to him, Cat, she's a sweet girl, and he's being a good big brother in turn" and this was not endearing him to Catelyn, change tactics, "--they'll split off as they age and their interests change, boys and girls do when they get older.")

(Lyanna hadn't.)

(Sansa didn't either.)

(Oh, and Arya had been a lost cause practically from birth when she cried in every pair of arms save her father's or Jon's. His wife hadn't taken that well.)

Truth be told, Ned was glad and guilty-both that his wolf-cubs all played together, even after acquiring a kracken sort-of-brother -- 

(the lone wolf dies but the pack survives) 

\--and while he'd not lied that he'd never directly, verbally given his girls permission to run wild (or wild-ish, in Sansa's case) and play at-arms, well... those child-sized learner's weapons hadn't snuck into 'favorite hidey-spots' on their own, nor had the larger, sturdier versions later. But the girls were no less a lady each for their innocent adventures with the boys, yes, even with Jon (and really, Arya could not be less a lady for anything when she refused to be one to begin with).

And then one day Catelyn was speaking of good matches for the girls, and Ned blinked again and here was Robert suggesting (demanding) that they join their houses through his eldest son and Sansa, and wasn't it too soon when Sansa was not even --

Oh, she *was* now nearly of age, how had that happened so quickly? And, bitter brew to swallow, he couldn't really deny his king anything, now could he? 'I will speak with Catelyn.' Inspiration struck. 'And Sansa. I'd like her to have a say in any betrothal; you know I'll never rest easy to recall how... *she*... had her choice taken from her.'

And he means one thing, and knows that Robert hears another, eyes darkening as he again curses thieving dragon-scum, and Ned swallows down his guilt with his drink because he is not his father and he'll not seal a betrothal agreement with his word and a daughter's tears both, not even for a king, no, not even for Robert.


End file.
